Bradford City chairman Geoffrey Richmond has hit back at a weekend newspaper report claiming that the club are "cashing in on their Premiership status" with huge season ticket price rises.

The report claimed that City had raised season tickets by 46 per cent - well above the 11 per cent average for the Premiership next season.

However Richmond has hit back and said: "We seem to have been singled out and accused of cashing in. That is preposterous because our season ticket prices were set in January and we had sold just over 9,000 before we knew which division we were in.

"Statistics can be used to prove anything. I suppose we will have to get used to this sort of attack from London-based journalists.

"Before this season we have had five years of price freezes on our season tickets. The figures which were produced in the article did show that only Wimbledon have cheaper prices in the Premiership.

"I can categorically state that we have not, in any way, cashed in on our Premiership status. The report could not even get the correct price which it said was £309. It is not but even if it was, I believe it compares very favourably which Chelsea's highest season ticket price which is around £1,150."

City fans who bought their season tickets before the mid-March deadline for the first price rise were able to take advantage of prices starting at just £187 for adults in blocks A and F in the Kop.

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